iOS 7 Beta Thoughts

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gehenna

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Topic # 119747 12-Jun-2013 08:57

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Anyone rocking the beta? Figured it's best to keep thoughts separate from the overall WWDC thread.

Gotta admit I'm really loving the beta on my 4S. Seems to be rock solid. It is using a fair whack of battery but since I'm docked most of the time it's no great issue.

It's responsive and smooth, very fast to navigate between apps using multitasking, and Control Centre is a godsend having been a jailbreaker just to get SBSettings and NCSettings up till now. The updated Notification Centre is really useful too - I might actually start using it now instead of it just being a place to get to NCSettings. I also love being able to get to functions and notifications from my lock screen.

Every one of my 3rd party apps that I've thrown at it works just fine with no crashes so far. This is after about 6 hours of solid playing around.

By the way - being able to chuck Newsstand in a folder now, and App Store Wishlists .......... FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the UI changes still feel "beta" in their conceptualisation. For example the 3G signal dots are fairly large, which when paired with a long carrier name (TelecomNZ) it takes up far too much of the status bar.

By and large it's great though. I'm loving the new concepts and features.

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Reply # 834644 12-Jun-2013 10:35

I think it looks really ugly. The gradients on the icons, the neon colours and white backgrounds with transparency just don't work for me. The icons also don't look consistent to me, they seem to have varying styles. The notification center in particular looks like a washed out mess with its white transparancy over the icons. But then again, I am only going off the internet pictures, not the physical product. Maybe it looks better in person.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

ajobbins

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Reply # 834647 12-Jun-2013 10:45

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I think they should have a couple of different 'themes' so that users have some choice. I've heard lots of mixed feedback about the new look. My view is it looks like someone vomited a pack of jelly beans.

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Reply # 834654 12-Jun-2013 11:03

Love it on the iPhone 5. Nice change as iOS was feeling tired. Amazed at how stable the beta is, compared to previous iOS betas. Favourite part is being able to swipe back in most native apps, including Safari (about time).

gehenna

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Reply # 834656 12-Jun-2013 11:05

I'm mainly interested (personally) in opinions of those actually using the beta, so I can find out what the actual real-world usage is like in comparison to my own experience on the 4S.

I agree with pretty much everything you've said @myopinion, I'm very surprised at the stability!

Dingbatt

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Reply # 835691 12-Jun-2013 12:30

Because it has probably been optimized for the 5's slightly bigger screen, do you think there are any compromises in the new look on the 4S?

Edit: Oh and does the ability to load the beta get you all the ios features, or do you get the slightly reduced set because it is a 4S?

Areas of Geek interest: Home Theatre, HTPC, Android Tablets & Phones, iProducts.

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Reply # 835758 12-Jun-2013 13:35

It looks great on the 4S display. Everything scales perfectly well as it does in 6.1.3 and prior. I don't have Airdrop so I guess the beta still limits features based on device.

mattwnz

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Reply # 835779 12-Jun-2013 13:51

paulmilbank: I think it looks really ugly. The gradients on the icons, the neon colours and white backgrounds with transparency just don't work for me. The icons also don't look consistent to me, they seem to have varying styles. The notification center in particular looks like a washed out mess with its white transparancy over the icons. But then again, I am only going off the internet pictures, not the physical product. Maybe it looks better in person.

Agree about the icons, some look good, but some look like microsoft clip art, they just aren't up to apples normal standards. The settings icon is yuck, the old one was cool and was consistent across OSX.
The transparency is basically what windows 7 and vista does. I would be good if it allowed the tint and opacity to be changed like it can in windows.

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Reply # 835785 12-Jun-2013 13:55

Yep agree on the icons...Safari is hilariously ugly in a retro kind of way. Settings icon - maybe there's some hidden symbology at work here? The facetime, phone and messaging app look out of focus. All the other apps from 3rd parties still look great. Ugly apps was one of my pet hates about Android on my Note 2.

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Reply # 836599 13-Jun-2013 22:54

Having used iOS7 for a few days now I must say it is growing on me. The icons still annoy me but the rest of the design looks quiet slick IMO.

I think my battery life has been adversely affected but that might just be me messing around with my phone a bit more than usual (using a 4S). I've also found on my 4S that its a bit less responsive than it was on iOS6 but I guess thats just a result of the additional toll the OS puts on the phone.

I'm entrenched in Apples ecosystem having spent loads of money on apps etc for my iPhone, iPad and now, Macbook Pro so Apple would have to screw iOS up pretty badly for me to think about switching to Android. I know Android users have been using some of these new features for years (auto app updates for example, why wasn't that in their from the start?) but I find that iOS really works well for me.

myfullflavour

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Reply # 836612 13-Jun-2013 23:58

Running extremely slow on iPhone 4. Hoping the next update improved things. I'm talking noticeable lag for every character typed, every gesture made.

A few apps (such as Skype) crash on opening but that's expected.

gehenna

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Reply # 836666 14-Jun-2013 08:49

I'm reading a fair bit about it being in flux and that what we see in the first beta will go through several design revisions before final product is released. That's to be expected really. So I'm sure they're paying attention to the feedback and will act accordingly.

@myfullflavour I hear the same about lag from everyone running the beta pre-4S. I imagine once it comes out it'll be like running iOS 5 and 6 was on my 3GS - very unresponsive. An impetus to upgrade I think.

I'm finding myself forgetting some of the new interface methods like swiping to the left on a message or email to bring up the delete option, rather I'm swiping to the right as I'm used to. Some of the design decisions don't make a lot of sense, the swipe direction included.

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Reply # 837159 15-Jun-2013 11:01

I personally think iOS 7 is awesome =d

gehenna

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Reply # 843914 25-Jun-2013 11:59

iOS 7 Beta 2 is now available as an OTA update if you have it installed. No problems on my 4S since updating. I have noticed few changes visually, except that the Motion accessibility menu is now called Parallax, and the Voice Memo's app has returned.

wasabi2k

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Reply # 843917 25-Jun-2013 12:07

ajobbins: I think they should have a couple of different 'themes' so that users have some choice. I've heard lots of mixed feedback about the new look. My view is it looks like someone vomited a pack of jelly beans.

sorry, your walled garden must look as decided. If you don't like it go away. Thanks, Apple.

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Reply # 843925 25-Jun-2013 12:12

Not really an IOS thing, but have they fixed iTunes to sync all-day-events from outlook properly yet? :)

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